Happy Birthday- Girls

Just a quick post tonight to show you something new. I have two very special friends that I have known since high school and we are all named Kim. Their birthday's are just a day apart and they don't know it but they both got the same card. They live miles apart and will never know unless they read my blog. Happy Birthday Girls! I am so glad they are older than me by a whooping 2 months.

I have been busy most of the weekend reorganizing things in my stamping studio. It was getting that cluttered look so it was time to do something about it. I painted two shelves earlier in the week so they were ready to be put up. I also had some smaller framed cubes that go on the wall and I mounted the four of them vertically. This way I can store things inside and on top of each one. I also found a great buy on a wall cabinet that has shelves and a frosted glass door- Just love it. I now store all of my flowers in it which made room in a different hutch for the new paper I had purchased and had a pile here and there. I also had six small silver metal pails that I had gotten from Target and I tied turquoise ribbon at the top. I put white alphabet stickers on the front to represent the chipboard letters that are in that pail. I divided the alphabet up into six so there are four to five letters on each pail. I think this will work great when I am looking for a letter I can just grab that pail and see which one matches best. I will post pictures in a later post.

For the card I used DCWV-La Creme and my spellbinders label four. I also used my new Latice borderabilities with a few pearls to dress it up. I had to keep it toned down a bit since it had to go in the mail. Really kills me to do that. The ribbon is a perfect match that I found in the dollar bin at "M" quite awhile ago.

Back to the birthday girls. I do have to tell you a funny story about all three of us being named Kim. When we were in high school we were walking down town one night (a very small town and at the time we didn't even have a stop light) a car full of boys from a neighboring town and different school pulled up along side us and asked which one of us was named Kim. Of course we just started laughing as we were looking at each other. We later found out that these boys knew exactly who we were and that we were all named Kim. Oh what memories and simple times of fun.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

A long awaited project

I wanted to share with you today a very special project that I just finished. This is a date book for birthdays and anniversaries. I took this class at The Owl and the Pussy Cat in Fort Myers, Florida when I was down visiting my friend Carol. It is fabric covered book and it does take a bit of time and some concentration when putting it together. Here are a few more pictures.


The Front Cover




This is the inside cover. You can see the title of the book and the tabs that indicate the months. I used VersaMagic - sugarcane on the image at the bottom. I wanted to keep it subtle. The paper I used to line the inside cover is a textured Japanese paper from the Owl and the Pussy Cat. It is very durable and will hold up better than ordinary card stock. It comes in many different colors that would match any material you might choose. After I had finished the book, I wished I had thought to put the ribbon under the Japanese paper for a cleaner look. Lesson learned for my next one. At the Owl and the Pussy Cat they also sell packages of the pre-printed inside pages that contain a full year. All you have to do is cut them in half and round the corners if that is the look you want.

Each month has two pages of regular card stock with the appropriate number of days. I just have to write the names next to the date for an easy quick glance at the special days. I used my Hero Arts -Fantastic Flourishes stamp set in SU mellow moss ink at the bottom to add a little flair. The tabs were created using a SU- Round Tab punch.

In between each of the months I added a blank page to write gift ideas that I might come up with long before the date, or hobbies of the receiver that might help me with ideas in my purchases when the time comes.

The back cover is the same material as the front. These are actually upholstery samples that is plenty large enough for the front and back cover. This book measures 5x11 and I did trim down the inside pages about a quarter of an inch so the edges were protected by the edges of the cover. I used red tacky tape to hold down the fabric onto pieces of sturdy mat board and also to adhere the Japanese paper. It is very important that you spend the money on a good product that will hold. After you put this much work into a book like this, you don't want it falling apart. Since I wanted rounded corners I had to spend a bit more time covering the corners with the fabric. I cut small slits and pinched and pleated the corners until they looked professional. Takes a bit of practice and patience. I used my Zutter on the covers once they were covered which brings about another little issue depending on the type of fabric you use. This one tended to fray quite a bit so once I cut the binding holes I had quite a bit of threads sticking out the holes. To clean this up, I took a very small pair of scissors and tediously trimmed inside each one. I then put a drop of Fray Check around each hole. At first I thought I may have ruined the fabric as it left a darker liquid mark, but the Fray check dried and you couldn't even tell I had used it.

I wanted to use the window plate that is in the bottom right corner but I didn't know what to put in it. I then decided on my initials but I didn't have a "k" and "m" in a lower case font that I liked so I just made the "C" in a different font. I had completely forgot about my Justright stamps until after the book was complete.

I hope you enjoyed my project. This book can be tailored to whatever type of book you want and the size and look are endless. These books make great gifts so in my mind it justifies the cost of the Zutter.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Celebrate what makes you happy!

This is a card that I did for a challenge with my stamp club. Each month we choose a theme . It usually isn't a layout challenge but a color or holiday. This challenge was to use the color red and ribbon (the ribbon could have been any color). For some reason I thought we had to also include a button and wouldn't you know it that was the part that gave me the most problems. I used my newest cuttlebug embossing plate- Fleur de lis and real red card stock. I layered a solid red ribbon on top of a plaid. The whole card was designed around the red and white plaid ribbon. I dressed up the button by going around the inside with a white pen and then put a pearl in the center. All of the punches are from Stamp'n Up as is the sentiment from the set Labelicious.

I just finished cleaning and organizing my stamp studio. I can't seem to find my creative side when I am surrounded by clutter. I guess I find it too distracting. So today I can celebrate organization. I had a lot of ribbon that needed to be rolled and put into my storage jars. I was at a garage sale yesterday and found 8 of the candy jars I use for my ribbon (you can find a picture on a previous post). They had $5 on each but I asked if they would take $3 each if I bought eight. They were happy for the sale and so was I. I must say, my wrists are a bit sore from all the rolling and it looks like I am going to have to put another shelf to hold the new jars.

Still trying to get used to the idea of not having any children in the house. Elliot is doing fine and enjoys his independence at school. He has decided to do his own cooking instead of getting the meal plan at school. Two of his days are so full that he wouldn't be able to grab a bite to eat and he isn't on campus every day. So he will pack a lunch and live on mac-n-cheese, yogurt and pb & j. He came home for Labor Day weekend and I sent him back home with enough food to keep him full for awhile till he comes home again.

On another note, my daughter and son-n-law just bought their first home and they are so excited. Becky just finished her Master's degree in special education and started her first teaching job this past January. They have decided to make their home in North Carolina and we can't wait to visit.

We have had some beautiful weather the past 2 weeks. I love getting up early with a cup of coffee and heading out on the deck with the Sunday paper. To me this is heaven. Enjoying the sun, my beautiful yard full of flowers and all the birds that visit it. The local wild turkey family (mama and her two babies) came in for breakfast at the neighbors bird feeder. They started to act a little funny and out from the woods came two red fox. What an amazing morning- at least for me and the turkeys. The foxes had to find something else to eat.

Celebrate, have fun and enjoy!

~Kim

Just where have you been?

Where have I been you say. I know, I know-the earth is starting to shake as I post this blog. It has been so long since I last posted and I apologize for that. We just got the last little lamb off to college so for the past 2 weeks I have been very busy. He has only been gone one week and will be back home tomorrow for the long weekend. If I didn't know better it is just like he has been away at band camp. I am sure it will really start to sink in after next week. I must say though, I sure enjoy how neat and clean the house stays. Now if I could just get rid of that dog of ours. Hmmm... let me see how that could be arranged.

It is my son-n-law's birthday so this is his card. As you all know I have difficultly with the simplicity of the male gender cards. Foo-Foo is my middle name so I immediately reach for the bling and ribbon. I don't think he would appreciate that too much. I just received my new release cuttlebug folders. Here is the new Fleur de lis pattern. Very stunning isn't it? I often save the packaging of new items I receive and the kraft paper on this card is the back side of an insert. You would never know if I hadn't told you right? My motto is never throw anything away until you decide there is absolutely no use for it. The brown card stock is SU chocolate chip as is the ink. The embellishment in the bottom is a square copper brad turned on an angle and the fleur de lis is a leftover piece from my EK success border punch. Some branches from my MS punch added just a little something to the bottom of the card. I wasn't happy with the sentiment though. It is from the Nostalgia set of Inkadinkado. It looks a little too rustic for me with the lines that come off the B,R,H and Y. The rest of the set doesn't look like this so I am wondering if this is a defect.

Speaking of saving the packaging-I have to let you in on a little secret. I have been watching the shows about hoarders. I became a little uneasy when I heard them describe how they just don't seem to have enough stuff and they just keep buying more. Does that sound familiar. I bet most of us have more embellishments, paper and stamps than we could ever use in a lifetime. Although my stuff is neatly organized and put away, it starts to scare me. I always make a point of reading the definition at the beginning of the show just to make sure I don't fit the description and after the show I find myself cleaning and tossing things out like crazy. The best therapy I could ever get.

I hope you all have a wonderful holiday. I am planning to get up into the "black hole" aka- my son's room and give it a good cleaning and scrub down. As much as I miss him, I hope he heads back to school at a decent time so I can get a few good hours in. If you don't see a recent post from me in the next week or so I may have never made it out of the mess.

Have fun and enjoy!

~Kim